thomas jefferson, who wrote the words in philadelphia in the summer of 1776 that we hold these truths to be self-evidence that we are endowed by our creator with certainin ailable rights, all men are created equal. owned slaves, protected slavery, perpetuated slavery, fathered children with slaves -- with a slave woman -- enslaved woman. and as a young man tried on a couple of occasions to reform the institution. he lost publicly and decisively. and we all know politicians dislike two things above all, losing publicly and decisively. and so about 1785 he stopped. he gave up. it was a very unjeffersonian thing to do. and i think he gave up because he couldn't find a political way out of it. and his whole life was su fused and made possible by slavery. his first memory was being a child on a pillow being handed up on a slave to be taken on a horse on a family journey. one of his last memories was being uncomfortable in his bed in that alcove bed. he's trying to signal his white family what he wants done. they don't get it. the only person who understands what he wants done is an enslave